Cantonese people

“ The officials on both sides were unfeignedly anxious for a pacific solution, but trade was greatly depressed in consequence of the threatening demeanor of the Canton populace. There was scarcely any doubt that the Chinese authorities did not possess the power to compel obedience on the part of the Cantonese to an order to admit Europeans into their city, and on the question being referred to Taoukwang he made an oracular reply which was interpreted as favoring the popular will. "That," he said, "to which the hearts of the people incline is that on which the decree of Heaven rests. ”

“ To trade as such the Chinese Government never seem to have had any objection, nor, would it appear, to foreigners as such. So long as there was nought to fear from their presence, the ancient maxim of cherishing men from afar could be followed without reserve, for the Chinese are by nature not an unkindly people. Tradition, indeed, claims for the settlement of foreigners in the Cantonese archipelago a purely hospitable origin, a storm-beaten vessel having in the year 1517 received permission from the local authorities to repair damages and dry her cargo there. ”

“ The Chinese feel this association with a past life more strongly than with the future, and the worship of their ancestors almost takes the place of affection for their fatherland. They certainly love their own homes, but what goes on in other parts of the country is a matter of indifference to them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the Russians take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that Canton is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said, indeed, to be the true religion of the Chinese. ”

“ The Earl of Clarendon had, when giving Sir John his instructions (February 13, 1854) , specially warned him, 'to treat all questions of unrestricted intercourse with the Chinese with much caution, so as not to imperil commercial interests which, with temperate management, would daily acquire greater extension.' But this policy of waiving at Canton the rights granted to British residents and condoning the insults incessantly offered to them by that proud city, did no good with people like the Cantonese gentry. ”

“ Were it not for our regard to the foreigners you accompany, we would take you all to the nearest authority, and there get you a hearty bambooing" I mention this circumstance the tone of the admonition implying more than is here expressed, because I think it tends to show that with our quarrel with the Cantonese the people of other provinces will not care a jot;—and that unless the Chinese Government initiate it, (their means being required for the attempt to subdue a rebellion in which, in spirit, all participate) the war need not, of necessity, be extended north of its present field. ”

“ They have sturdy qualities, are sober and industrious, enterprising and independent, but are rather too truculent and too much given to brawling. But this applies only to the lower classes, and especially357 to the "rolling-stones" that find their way to the coast-ports, for the typical Cantonese gentleman would be an ornament to any society in the world. ”

“ The God of Wealth, whose good works we have just related, is nowhere more fêted than in the town of Canton. Every evening, after the shops are closed, candles are lighted and incense is burned before his altars, which are fitted in niches on the outside of the shops. The whole town is illuminated and perfumed. This is an universal adoration to which no inhabitant of the Chinese empire gives himself up more fervently than the Cantonese, who are the most commercial of the Chinese. ”

“ In seeing Canton he will have seen much that is typical of China—for the foreigner has not gained the foothold here that he has in Hongkong, and the Cantonese, for the most part, dress and act and speak as their ancestors did centuries ago. Only most of them have discarded the queue since the establishment of the Republic, and the feet of the women are not bound so generally as in the days of the Empire. ”

“ And they are strong—very." Then, when the speaker went on to say that on the road to Chengtu there was a 152 city where a large part of the population all intermarried, and did not bind their women's feet, being of Cantonese descent, Cantonese ladies nodded and smiled, and moved dainty little hands with impetuous movements, as if eager for interpreters in their turn to make themselves understood by the great, jolly Szechuan dames round them. ”

“ The inn was a large one, and very clean. Many of its rooms were already occupied by a large party of Cantonese returning home after the Thibetan Fair with loads of opium.
The Cantonese, using the term in its broader sense as applied to the natives of the province of Kuangtung, are the Catalans of China. They are as enterprising as the Scotch, adapt themselves as readily to circumstances, are enduring, canny, and successful; you meet them in the most distant parts of China. They make wonderful pilgrimages on foot. They have the reputation of being the most quick-witted of all Chinese. ”

“ The population of Canton is too dense for the most truly paternal Government on earth to risk the presence of lepers in the midst of the Cantonese myriads. The miserable lepers looked out at us from the windows of their boat-prisons. ”

“ One morning our friend the mandarin begged us—Callery, Rondot, and myself—to take a passing glance at that part of his mansion which is consecrated to science and art; anxious, apparently, to let us see that a Celestial Sybarite could be also a man of learning and taste. We found among other things a regular printing-office—a Chinese printing-office, of course; and Pan-se-Chen, or rather Callery, explained to us that this Cantonese Mæcenas caused to be struck off ancient inscriptions, and old maxims grown scarce, whose reproduction was generally desired among the learned. ”

“ Such beasts, which stand in the water and plaster themselves with mud like elephants, are the cows and draught oxen of China. Two nice Chinese boys sat by us, and Mr. Smith practiced Chinese upon them, till a man came out angrily and took them away, using many words, of which we only understood "Barbarian Devils." The Cantonese are not rude, however. A foreign lady can walk alone without being actually molested, though as a rule Chinese women are not seen in the streets. I have certainly seen half a million men, and not more than ninety women, and those only of the poorest class. ”

“ Occasionally a coolie acquires wealth, either by a stroke of luck in his own locality or by emigrating to another country, where he succeeds in making enough to live in comfort for the remainder of his life. If such is the case, he usually returns to Canton, is soon drawn into the whirlpool of native life, and lives an envied life of leisure as an independent Cantonese. ”

“ For the Cantonese do not appear to understand the use of wheels, or beasts of burden; everything is carried on bamboo poles by the intensely hard-working coolie population. Where they can do it, the streets are shaded with matting. ”

“ The Cantonese water population was a surprise, not so much for its numbers as for the lithe, sinewy forms, bright eyes and cheerful faces, particularly among the women, young and old. Nearly always one or more women, mother and daughter oftenest, grandmother many times, wrinkled, sometimes grey, but strong, quick and vigorous in motion, were manning the oars of junks, houseboats and sampans. ”

“ Yeh continued to govern Canton; the Cantonese continued to suffer by the suspension of their trade with the British. The four northern ports managed to retain a trade which was very lucrative to them—selling tea and silk to the English, and buying opium, which the Chinese dealers sold again at an enormous profit in the upper or inner provinces. As for the emperor at Pekin, the English authorities at Hong-kong had no means of determining to what extent he was cognizant of affairs in the south, nor how far he sanctioned the immovable line of policy followed by his viceroy at Canton. ”

“ Canton was now the only port in China where the Nanking Treaty was systematically disregarded, and this was done at Canton simply on account of the proximity of Hongkong. The establishment of a British Colony at the mouth of the Canton river was to the haughty Cantonese what German Alsatia is to sensitive Frenchmen: a festering wound in their side, a source of constant irritation. ”

“ Two charming tanka girls, A-Moun and A-Fay, made their egg-shell glide over the calm water, and put us out at the landing-place which precedes Old China Street. While going along this silent passage, I said to Callery:—
"Canton is decidedly mournful; the bazaar of Macao is dirty, stinking, and filthy, but there is life about it. This passage, so straight and so correct, is enough to give any one the horrors. I believe the Chinese people is an amphibious people; it only lives well on the water. ”

“ It was nothing, this revolution, but the desperate work of agitators who had glimpsed the wealth and the individualistic tendencies of the West. And the hot-blooded Cantonese, of course. Most of the Chinese in America were Cantonese. The revolution was, then, a Southern matter; it was these tropical men that had come to know America. That was about its only strength. The great mass of yellow folk here in the Yangtze Valley, and through the coast provinces, and all over the great central plain and the North and Northwest were peaceable at heart ”

“ He led an inferior mandarin, the Superintendent of Customs, to call upon the Tao-t’ai, and remonstrate with him upon the folly of permitting such an attempt, which he assured him would rouse the foreigners in other places to come with armed forces to avenge the death of their countrymen and raze the city to the ground. The Tao-t’ai replied that, when the foreigners came for that purpose, he should deny all knowledge of or complicity in the plot, and so direct their vengeance against the Cantonese, who would in their turn be destroyed ”

“ The Cantonese will often ask a price in excess of what they will accept for an article. For example: A Seattle lady admired a brass vase and was bargaining for it through her interpreter with the merchant, who wanted seventy-five dollars gold; a Honolulu gentleman, Mr. Vida, who lives in Shanghai, was present, and dissuaded the lady from closing the deal; and later on he got it for her at thirty dollars; her guide-interpreter had been conspiring with the shopkeeper to rob the unsuspecting tourist.
Between Canton and Hong Kong the country is largely given over to rice-growing. ”

“ He built up the Chinese Communications Service on the administrative and financial side. He declined taking office as a minister, but usually controlled the action of the cabinet through his influence over important subordinates, and managed all financial affairs for Yuan Shih-kai. Cantonese, short of stature and thickset, with a massive Napoleonic head, he speaks little, but his side remarks indicate that he is always ahead of the discussion, which is also shown by his searching questions. When directly questioned himself, he will always give a lucid and consecutive account of any matter. ”

“ The missionaries of science, commerce, and of religion have done much within the last twenty years to dispel the extravagant ideas entertained of the Celestial Empire, and have shown us that the race is by no means celestial, but a people very much like the rest of the Eastern nations, certainly no more civilized.
Canton is the strangest of all strange cities, and perhaps the most representative one in China. With a population of a million and a half, it has not a street within its walls over eight feet wide. Horses and vehicles are unknown. ”

“ I was warned not to be surprised if the Chinamen should stone me while I was in Canton. I was told that Chinese women usually spat in the faces of female tourists when the opportunity offered. However, I had no trouble. The Chinese are not pleasant appearing people; they usually look as if life had given them nothing but trouble ”

“ Even to go into Canton they must have a pass or permit, which must be shown to the guards at the city gate. Sha-mien is the European concession. There live all the Occidentals who have diplomatic or other business at Canton. They are only a handful—the European permanent residents at Sha-mien; eighty odd, I think, they numbered when we were there—all told I mean; men, women and children. They live with their lives in their hands. The moral force of Europe is great, but if the Cantonese become vicious enough, they will rally across that narrow bridge and massacre every European in Sha-mien. ”

“ I have already said that the populace of Canton is the most violent, the most stupid, and the most inconsistent in the whole universe; and I am going to give a proof of this. When the Chinese meet in the American garden, or in the narrow alleys of the factories, any beautiful child of the Saxon race with auburn hair and blue eyes, or any beautiful little boy as rosy as a cupid of Watteau, they crowd around these charming little creatures with benevolent curiosity ”

“ When the awful news of the bombardment of Canton reached the Cantonese in Ningpo their wrath and indignation knew no bounds, and they immediately set to work to plot the destruction of all the foreigners resident in the city and neighborhood. It was well known that many of the foreigners were in the habit of meeting for worship every Sunday evening at one of the missionary houses, and the plan was to surround the place on a given occasion and make short work of all present, cutting off afterwards any who might not be present. ”